Barista Express by Breville / Sage - How to Use and Latte Art Tutorial on a Home Espresso Machine

Make a delicious and beautiful latte on a Barista Express home espresso machine. This is the BES870XL, and with a little practice you can use it to make beautiful latte art as well.

This is my first video and I'm hoping it will help people who have struggled to get a good coffee out of this machine after spending so much money on it. Good luck and let me know how you get along!

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[PM.]

I always say, its not a coffee machine. It's a chemistry set! Love this machine and it's held its quality and consistency for YEARS

[miketibbetts]

I'm going to need a master's degree to figure this thing out. Awesome video, you take pride in your cup of ☕👍

[lanwang]

I have the same machine as you do, I almost did the same everything you do. Scale the beans, scale the espresso coming out, counting the time. Although I steam milk first and then brew the coffee. It is great to see someone is doing the same thing. For latte art, there are a lot of great videos from Dritan Alsela on YouTube. I made my latte art much much better by watching his video and practice again and again. Thank you for your video. Made me more confident on what I am doing as I study everything by myself.

[ffsolutions]

Wow what a gem!😀 We can tell you were early into your coffee journey here, but fun to watch in late 2024! 😅

[Bulletstopper]

Just purchased this machine. I love how meticulous this guy is. Bravo.

[dudeonbike]

Regarding “the mountain” of grounds during grinding:

I gently tap the portafilter handle as the ground coffee falls into the basket. This distributes the grounds more evenly into the basket, almost completely prevents overflow, reducing waste. No need to overflow unnecessarily and waste perfectly good coffee. At almost $20/pound, I want to use ALL my coffee!

Love my BE 870XL, almost 2 years old now, being used daily to make 2 16 oz lattes with 3 double shots total. Perform “clean me” cleanings & vinegar/water descaling religiously, and replace filter every other month. Use Full Circle descaler every sixth month. Fingers crossed.*

VERY lucky to have wonderful, soft, Sierra municipal water. Thanks EBMUD!

*Pulled off the group head “shower screen” for the first time this month, and was surprised to see how much grime had collected within the group head. Despite, as I said, religious cleaning with the tablets & descaling. Plus, I ALWAYS run a pre-pull double shot before my espresso pulls AND wipe the screen of grounds & oils before running a post-pulls double rinse shot.

Doing my damdest to ensure a long life of excellent home lattes & espresso.

If anyone has any other good maintenance tricks they’d like to share, I’m all ears!

I’m sure the greater home barista group would appreciate it too!

Thanks.

[pancakeninja]

Pretty bang on with the pressure for that espresso shot, it's a good budget machine for entry level home coffee, beats paying for a sh!tty one at a random cafe.

[abdullahalshammari]

Hi, I bought this machine and I do not know the right way to use it, but now I'm a professional after watching your premium video. Thank you

[rayo]

Thanks for the video - found it very helpful in getting me started on the same machine.

[michaellaw]

Best video I've watched describing how to use this machine. Thanks for all the helpful tips, especially about using a slightly coarser grind for dark roasted beans and the appropriate tamping pressure.

[francesyun]

Thanks for the video! Been trying to use my machine for months now without success. The espresso is much better after watching your vid :)

[allthehui]

Crazy to see how much your presentation and speaking has improved in recent videos. Keep it up 🤙

[franmon]

I had been getting trouble producing latte art quality milk with this machine and the first one I did right after watching your video was just perfect! (ok, maybe not perfect, but definitely the best I ever did). Thank you!

[rogeliorios]

I just got one of theses machines for Christmas 🎄, I love lattes, I can’t wait to follow your instructions and get my latte the way I like it . Thank you, great video.

[Baka-kun]

I’m an amateur barista and only work in the summer on weekends for festivals and I work this machine. Never knew about the specifics but everyone seemed fine with how I made their expressos and americanos. I never learned how to make the lattes cause instructions about the steamer were hard to understand and the customers didn’t really know how one was made as well.
Our expresso machine is just chilling and collecting dust cause I don’t like coffee and my family doesn’t drink strong drinks everyday. However I really want to practice now 😔 but without wasting expresso beans

[stevencampbell]

Hi mate I'm looking into the sidewalk coffee beans as I ain't far from Cambridge. Which one would you recommend for a latte

[xLazy]

Thanks a lot mate! My technique for steaming is really bad 😅 I want to make a latte but I ended up always making a cappuccino 😂 but I like it and it tastes good, I will try your technique and I hope it works with me too, thanks again ❤️

[rosstune]

Thanks for your video and your knowledge. It has been very helpful. Off coffee anyone every told you that you sound like Chris Martin from Coldplay. haha.

[정룻휘]

I can tell that he definitely worked at a coffee shop before. Finally, review by someone who actually knows basics of how to use espresso machine 👏👏
Although you can practice more on latte art 😎👍

[dorismona]

Hello, you’ve removed the porta filter basket very easily (2:23) how did you do that? Mine is fitted in so tightly that I needed to use a knife to force it out...Thank you